Malaysia Silver but the winner is Baskin-Robbins! Updated

Updated: Baskin Robbins announced that there will still be free ice cream given out tomorrow at 61 participating outlets. Go celebrate with Baskin Robbins with 1 scoop per person free between 8pm and 10pm. Kudos to Baskin Robbins. Winner by far. (read here)

Lee Chong Weiplayed a gallant game in a nail-biting finish against China’s Lin Dan. Alas, Malaysia’s first Olympics gold medal remains illusive with Lin Dan outplaying Chong Wei. Overall, it was an exciting game and Chong Wei did his best. Lin Dan is still much better in his game than Chong Wei and he deserves his number one world rating.

When Baskin-Robbins announced that they will be giving out free ice cream on 8th August if Chong Wei won the gold medal, the entire Malaysia cheered. Everyone knows how expensive Baskin-Robbins ice cream is and a chance to taste this is a dream come true. Just as winning the first gold medal for Malaysia and the entire Malaysia shared the joy of the promise.

This is a masterful piece of marketing indeed. Had Chong Wei won, Baskin-Robbins will have to fork out free ice cream for the day. That’s not much considering the effectiveness of gaining the mind share for the brand name.

However, everybody knows that Chong Wei is the underdog chasing for his gold medal that he lost poorly in the Beijing Olympics. And Baskin-Robbins knows that it is an outside chance for Chong Wei to win and all for Lin Dan to lose. It is expected for Lin Dan to win and that he did.

As it turned out, Baskin-Robbins gained significant mind share for the brand name without giving out a free scoop of ice cream.

Hats off to Baskin-Robbins! They are now the most well known ice cream in the country for free.